The Whitlingham Bird Report for 2016 is now available to download here.

The previous reports are also availble: 2015 here, 2014 report here and the 2013 reporthere. Thanks to everyone who has contributed sightings, information and photos to these reports.

You may also be interested in Chris Durdin's Thorpe Marsh Wildlife Report for 2016,which is availablehere.

THORPE MARSH: CIEEM walk

7th July 2016

On Thursday evening Chris Durdin led a walk at Thorpe Marshes for CIEEM (Chartered Institute of Ecology & Environmental Management) members. I'm not a member, but the walk was organised by Jeremy Halls, and with a place spare he kindly invited me along. We were also accompanied by a member of the NWT's reserves team, who was able to tell us a bit about the habitat work that had taken place since the Norfolk Wildlife Trust took on the lease.

For ecologists visiting the site for the first time, the wetland flora and the Norfolk Hawkers were probably the main attraction. On the flood a brood of Tufted Ducks and two Mallard broods both showed themselves amongst the rushes, and a Gadwall called unseen. A Grasshopper Warbler reeled close by. Jeremy confirmed that the yellow plant at the back of the flood is Buttonweed, unlike the plant on the nearside which is Celery-leaved Buttercup. Buttonweed is an invasive species, also present at Hickling, but on the bright side it was a patch tick.

Of the other species we saw the pick were mostly invertebrates, including a small soldier beetle sp. Silis ruficollis, the Crab Spider Misumena vatia blending in with a Marsh Ragwort flower and a Mullein moth caterpillar.

One other thing of interest was the brood of Mute Swans, which includes a white cygnet. This form, known as 'Polish Swan' is caused by a recessive mutation and is seldom seen - the only other one I have seen was in a brood of cygnets that nested near the road at Cley, probably 2009ish.

More Photos

The downside to a blog is the somewhat transient nature of the posts, so I have created a Flickr page with albums for photos of the country park, dodgy wildfowl and anything else that takes my fancy. If you want to take a look it can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/whitlingham. More will be added when I get round to it.

Fatbirder ranking

Norwich Peregrine Watch

To keep uptodate with the Peregrines on Norwich Cathedral you can follow this link to the Hawk and Owl Trust website. Pictures are updated every 2 minutes or so.Norwich Peregrines web cam

There is also a local photographers website where you can view some excellent photos of the birds and buy stuff with them on: